G
Guest 7015810
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I've found some more information about the copyrights. Although Lowkey13 told us that three of the games that Lowry published have the same 1971 copyright date, Lowry had three additional copyrights in 1971, and those dates are not May 15, 1971. All six of them are shown below:
So we have:
1. Alexander the Great (Saturday, May 15, 1971)
2. Chainmail (Saturday, May 15, 1971)
3. Dunkirk (Saturday, May 15, 1971)
but we also have:
4. Tractics vol 1 (Saturday, Aug 21, 1971)
5. Tractics vol 2-3 (Saturday, Aug 21, 1971)
6. Hardtack (Wednesday, Dec 1, 1971)
Second, the date has nothing to do with the game designer finishing the design of the game.
Third, the instructions on the copyright form shown on page 2 of this thread specified to Lowry that the date he gave was to be the date that the book was "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed":
“Give the complete date when copies of this particular edition were first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed. The date when copies were made or printed should not be confused with the date of publication.”
With only the first three copyright dates to consider, Lowkey13's explanation that the May 15, 1971 was arbitrary would appear possible, even likely. However, with the addition of the later three copyright dates, that no longer seems to be the case. The reason is that the Tractics dates of Saturday, Aug 21, 1971 does not appear to be arbitrary at all; in fact, that is the first day of Gen Con 4, which can be verified here:
en.wikipedia.org
So it appears that Lowry did follow the instructions given to him and did try to estimate when the products were "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed"; in the case of Tractics, this appears to have been the first day of Gen Con 4. This suggests that the May 15, 1971 date is similarly an approximation by Lowry as to when those three products were "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed".
Further, note that--as explained in the complete definition above from the copyright form-- this is not the date the books were printed. Therefore, there is no reason why the three games couldn't have been printed earlier, at different times, but all put on sale on the same day (Saturday, May 15). Further, as seen by the Tractics example, the fact that May 15 was a Saturday does not automatically mean that it is incorrect; as mentioned previously, hobby stores were open on Saturdays. Lowry's estimate could have rounded to the nearest half-month as well.
So the May 15 date does appear to be an estimate from Lowry as to when those three products were "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed." With no evidence having yet surfaced supporting the March 1971 publication date used by nearly everyone, I again point to the unsupported 2006 Acaeum forum post as the likely source for that dating-- a date which places Chainmail just prior to Arneson's first announced Blackmoor game. From the evidence above, it appears more likely that Chainmail actually followed that first announced Blackmoor game-- which is consistent with the analysis at the top of this thread.
So we have:
1. Alexander the Great (Saturday, May 15, 1971)
2. Chainmail (Saturday, May 15, 1971)
3. Dunkirk (Saturday, May 15, 1971)
but we also have:
4. Tractics vol 1 (Saturday, Aug 21, 1971)
5. Tractics vol 2-3 (Saturday, Aug 21, 1971)
6. Hardtack (Wednesday, Dec 1, 1971)
The date is arbitrary. As you know, these copyrights were mass submitted in 1972. They were not contemporaneous with the actual publication dates.
If you're familiar with the topic you know that a selection of the 1st or the 15th indicates that the individual in question is most likely choosing a random date*; in addition, the actual retail practice back then means that this particular date, which fell on a Saturday, is certainly wrong.
Moreover, we can easily see that there are three copyrights submitted for three different products, in 1972, that all claim the exact same date a year prior in 1971. We further know that this is impossible, because contemporaneous evidence is that Chainmail, Dunkirk, and Alexander were released at different times.
So we know that this is an arbitrary and incorrect date that does not suffice as evidence of publication date.
I would say that those dates are a lot more right than yours is, unless Gygax had the best Saturday ever.
There seem to be some errors here. First, the date of the copyright was given by Lowry, not Gygax, because Lowry was the publisher.And yes, that must have been an extraordinarily productive Saturday! Gary invented three games from scratch and made it down to the copyright office and back in time for supper!
Second, the date has nothing to do with the game designer finishing the design of the game.
Third, the instructions on the copyright form shown on page 2 of this thread specified to Lowry that the date he gave was to be the date that the book was "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed":
“Give the complete date when copies of this particular edition were first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed. The date when copies were made or printed should not be confused with the date of publication.”
With only the first three copyright dates to consider, Lowkey13's explanation that the May 15, 1971 was arbitrary would appear possible, even likely. However, with the addition of the later three copyright dates, that no longer seems to be the case. The reason is that the Tractics dates of Saturday, Aug 21, 1971 does not appear to be arbitrary at all; in fact, that is the first day of Gen Con 4, which can be verified here:

Gen Con - Wikipedia
So it appears that Lowry did follow the instructions given to him and did try to estimate when the products were "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed"; in the case of Tractics, this appears to have been the first day of Gen Con 4. This suggests that the May 15, 1971 date is similarly an approximation by Lowry as to when those three products were "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed".
Further, note that--as explained in the complete definition above from the copyright form-- this is not the date the books were printed. Therefore, there is no reason why the three games couldn't have been printed earlier, at different times, but all put on sale on the same day (Saturday, May 15). Further, as seen by the Tractics example, the fact that May 15 was a Saturday does not automatically mean that it is incorrect; as mentioned previously, hobby stores were open on Saturdays. Lowry's estimate could have rounded to the nearest half-month as well.
So the May 15 date does appear to be an estimate from Lowry as to when those three products were "first placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed." With no evidence having yet surfaced supporting the March 1971 publication date used by nearly everyone, I again point to the unsupported 2006 Acaeum forum post as the likely source for that dating-- a date which places Chainmail just prior to Arneson's first announced Blackmoor game. From the evidence above, it appears more likely that Chainmail actually followed that first announced Blackmoor game-- which is consistent with the analysis at the top of this thread.